Above-ground pools are usually installed outdoors for use. Leaves, dust and other impurities may easily enter the pools and affect water quality. Therefore, a filter pump is usually connected with the above-ground pool to filter and clean the water. Normally, the filter pump may be connected with a water inlet and a water outlet of the above-ground pool via pipes to achieve water circulation. When the filter pump needs to be cleaned, and a filter cartridge of the filter pump needs to be replaced or to be cleaned, a plug may be used to block the water inlet and water outlet disposed on the pool wall to prevent water leakage.
However, the above method has many disadvantages. For example, it usually takes much effort to plug the plug into the water inlet and the water outlet of the pool and pull the plug out of the water inlet and the water outlet via an operation of a user in the pool, thereby increasing operation difficulty; secondly, if the plug is not firmly plugged into the water inlet and the water outlet, it is likely to result in leakage at the water inlet and the water outlet; thirdly, the plug is likely to be damaged or lost and so on.
Due to long-term outdoor use of the above-ground pool, plenty of bacteria and viruses may breed in the water, the conventional method for sterilization is to put sodium hypochlorite or other disinfection tablets directly into the water, or into a floating chemical dispenser, so that the disinfection tablets can be slowly dissolved to sterilize and disinfect the water. However, the disinfection tablets may sink to a bottom of the pool after being directly put into the water, since the water is relatively static when the pool is not in use, the dissolved tablets can only diffuse to a small area near the disinfection tablets. Similarly, when a chemical dispenser is applied to dispense disinfectants, the chemical dispenser may drift to corners of the pool under the force of wind and the dissolved disinfectants cannot diffuse over a large area either. A common disadvantage of the above two methods for discharge disinfectants lies in that, the dissolved disinfectants cannot diffuse to a larger area, thereby affecting a disinfection effect of water.